I haven’t seen Yngwie perform in a long time, but for a while, he was really into playing the opening measures of Paganini’s 4th Violin Concerto.  Good choice; it’s a great opening, really dramatic melody.  I have to hand it to him for finding something that’s not so standard.  I mean, it’s still Paganini – Mr. Popular among guitarists wanting to play crazy classical licks, but the 4th concerto is much more obscure than the frequently performed #1, not to mention the super popular 24 Caprices.

But, I was always hoping that he’d keep going and play the solo part, which is where the real fun starts and the whole purpose of the piece!  It opens with a huge arpeggio that is a challenge to play on the guitar.  Check out this youtube video below.  It picks up right where Yngwie typically stops, which is where the real solo work begins.  Right away, there’s a huge E major arpeggio; you can hear it in the first 10 seconds of the video.  Sorry for the poor quality, but finding a recording of this would have been practically impossible before youtube.

That clip is under five minutes, but just the first movement alone is around fifteen minutes.  Yngwie quoted the orchestral opening long ago and he’s pretty well known for it.  So, I don’t wanna bother posting any youtube videos of it.  But, check this out…

(above) Yngwie’s “Arpeggios From Hell”

Dang, it always feels like I’m picking on Yngwie.  I don’t mean too; he was my number one influence on me when I first started playing and I’m still a fan today.  I can’t tell you how many Yngwie songs I learned.  Anyway, it’s the intro to the video that I’d like to point out.  He says, “…it has the most extreme arpeggios that I’ve ever come up with.”  That makes me think:  ”If only he would have continued with the Paganini #4, then he, for sure, would have met the most extreme arpeggios ever!”  Because the ones in that Paganini piece are way bigger and badder.

The few arpeggios that Yngwie plays in here are all sequenced, meaning he’ll play three ascending notes of the arpeggio, drop back down two notes, play three more ascending notes (moving one note beyond the previous three notes), and repeat until he’s gone way up the neck.  Sure, this is pretty extreme (and of course he’s playing them fast), but it does give you plenty of time to put your left hand into position.  The one in the opening of the Paganini is a straight four-octave arpeggio – no sequences.  The lefthand has to move much faster.  Oh yes, and it’s also wider.

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(above) Here’s the tab to the opening of the solo part of the 4th concerto by Paganini.  Note:  I dropped the arpeggio down one octave so it can be played on a normal guitar.  Keeping it in the same octave as the original notation would mean you’d have to hit the G# at the 28th fret and the high B natural at the 31st fret!  The arpeggio is fingered the way it is to attempt to enforce even playing of the notes.  If you’re an excellent sweep picker, you may want to finger it differently, like playing the first four notes all on the low E string so you’re set up for a big sweep pattern across all six strings.

As a theory side note, Yngwie also says, “…in a lot of different modes.”  That doesn’t really make sense.  Modes have to do with scales, not arpeggios, which are just chords that have their notes played individually in some sort of sequence.

Hello, welcome to my second entry from these series where I will be discussing the subject of tuning from a perspective of an electric guitarist inside the world of classical music. Today I will be talking about the subject of tuning during the classical period (1750-1830), how this benefits us and where is our connection in all of this as electric guitar players.

I will begin this entry in a slightly different way than last time. I will go straight to the connection that there is between the electric guitar and the classical period and from then on I will go into the subject of tuning. Let’s get started.

Arpeggione, the connection between the electric guitar and the classical period:

The arpeggione was created in the XIX century during the  last decade of the classical period by the Viennese guitar maker Johann Georg Stauffer, and it came as an evolution of the guitar and the bass viola da gamba. By this time the viola da gamba was not used anymore and no one was composing for the instrument, since the cello was the new and modern instrument of the future.

The arpeggione enjoyed a very brief success during the decade of 1820-1830, after which the instrument went into complete silence and obscurity. The only notable piece composed for this great instrument is the Arpeggione Sonata by Schubert which was commissioned by the arpeggione virtuoso Vincenz Schuster a year after the arpeggione was invented.

To get right to the main point, the arpeggione is basically a bowed guitar that was invented in the 19th century. It shares the same shape as our modern instrument: the size comes very very close, it has frets all the way up the neck, the size of the neck are almost the same, and the most important thing is that we share the same exact tuning in the same range of octaves, not to mention that both are six string instruments. We have infront of us an instrument with which we share even more things than the viola da gamba. On top of that, it functions the same way as a guitar with the only exception of the bow.

Tuning in the Arpeggione: E-A-D-G-B-E
Standard tuning on an electric guitar: E-A-D-G-B-E

I am completely amazed to see that no one has ever mentioned this before, when we have a direct connection with Schubert as electric guitar players.  Yes, by now you must be thinking “This is amazing, it’s completely out of this world.” Well yes, it is indeed !!!

Not only we have a direct connection with Schubert and the classical period, but we also have a direct connection with the viola da gamba and the baroque period. All of this is  a product of an inevitable evolution through the history of music.

The Tuning Fork:

This is a very important subject, because it allows us to see how tuning started to fluctuate once this device was introduced in the world of western music. The tuning fork was invented in 1711 during the height of the baroque period by British trumpeter John Shore, to whom Handel and Purcell wrote sections of their music. There is a tuning fork in existence which is associated with Handel dating from 1740 that is tuned to A=422 hz. This is an extremely interesting subject, because this happened ten years before the classical and the creation of a tuning fork shows us that they where looking for  a more stable pitch.

We should have in mind that the 18th century was one of the most stable periods in the history of music. The tuning system used was between A=415 hz and A=430 hz, which is already closer to our A=440 standard. We know all of this because we have the examples of the tuning fork associated with Handel and Mozart’s fortepiano was tuned to A=421 hz.

This tuning frequency between 420 and 430 is called the German Cammerton (German concert Pitch) at which the music of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven was performed at the time. In other words, this was the tuning frequency for the first Viennese school.

Now, if the A=415 hz previously mentioned for baroque modern historical performance were a half step down of our standard 440, the tuning frequency that was widely used during the classical period would be about a quarter tone below our present 440.

This of course, gives us a lot of difficulties when performing this music because we have to choose what is the frequency that is going to be used while performing this music. For example:

A=415 .- The frequency for baroque modern historical performance is widely used for classical modern historical performance as well. The main reason for this is because instruments like the Fortepiano and the Pianoforte can make clean transpositions of a semitone and it’s also a pitch at which original wind instruments of the period can comfortably play.

A=420-30 .- Frequency at which it was played during the 18th century. For classical modern historical performance  this would be the correct pitch range; however, very few orchestras tune to this frequency nowadays.

A=440-45 .- Frequency at which this music is performed most of the time nowadays.

Of course it is a matter of personal taste and none of them are wrong in any way at all. However, these three options are available and open to discussion.

Fortepiano or Pianoforte?

This is one of the most important aspects in all of this, because it is here where we can see the real difference between historical performance and modern performance. As you may all know by now, the modern piano is the evolution of the fortepiano, but you may ask yourself, “what is the real difference between them and how does this affect me as an electric guitar player when performing this music?”

It’s very simple. Like I have said before, it all comes down to the tonal quality, the timber, and the palette of colors that you want to use as an electric guitarist when performing chamber music of this period.

Here I will draw a couple of comparisons between the use of a fortepiano and a pianoforte in both the tuning frequency, tone, timber, and color.

Here we have Argentinian pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, performing the same piece and the same movement in a modern performance with a modern instrument. Right away, the first thing you notice is that the sound is brighter, lighter, and sharper; it doesn’t have the same amount of weight as the other one. This of course, is one of the main points to take into consideration as an electric guitar player when performing music from this period, because depending on the instrument with which you are playing, you can be in a completely different world entitled.

Now that you know what is the difference in colors, sound and timber between both instruments, it’s time to go into chamber music to run a comparison.

In this very particular case we have Belgium Cellist Nicolas Deletaille performing Schubert Sonata for Arpeggione and Fortepiano in A minor III Allegretto D.821 in a classical modern historical performance with the original combination of arpeggione and fortepiano.

Since the Arpeggione is not used anymore and the repertoire is very limited but still growing, this particular sonata is played 99% of the time in transcriptions for other instruments like the Viola, Cello and the Double Bass. Now we can compare it with a modern performance  by Hungarian Cellist Miklos Perenyi and Hungarian Pianist Andras Schiff.

You can notice right away that they are two completely different worlds, not to mention that they have nothing do to with each other. The tonal qualities of the arpeggione are more robust, crude, and muddy than those of the cello, where the sound is more round, warm and sweet. Then comes the use of vibrato in two very different ways and many many details like those ones can be brought up to the table.

These are all things that have to be taken into consideration as electric guitar players when performing this music. Like I have stated before, the main problem that we encounter is that electric guitar players don’t always have access to this information and therefore we end up with a very poor interpretation that is not well informed on the practice of modern and historical performance

With this I conclude this first part dedicated to both classical modern historical performance, classical modern performance and the connection that we have as instrumentalist not only with one of our ancestors the Arpeggione, but also with Schubert, the first Viennese School, the classical period and how we can use this information to perform music from the classical period.

On my next entry I will continue to talk about the connection with the arpeggione. I will introduce to you another one of our ancestors from this era, the connection that electric bass players have with the classical period, and how it can benefit both electric guitar and bass players who are interested in performing inside this particular genre.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this particular entry, you can leave me a comment below, send me a message from the team page or via my website at http://www.oscar-lugo.com/

Haha!  Awesome.  Check out these latest stories and events featuring the original king of neoclassical metal, Yngwie Malmsteen.  Do these stories foretell the comeback of shredding in the US?

• Yngwie is named one of Time Magazines ten greatest electric guitarists of all time.  Amazing.  Note the funny caption:  The Swede’s superfast “neoclassical” style — he credits Bach and Paganini as influences — is a blur of scales and technical precision. It almost makes you forget that the great bulk of his music is so fast that it’s unlistenable.
• Yngwie appears on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.  He’s right up there with the blues/jazz band playing his shred style.  Great stuff – one of the first tracks in the video is naturally a clip from “Far Beyond the Sun”.  Host Jimmy Fallon actually says “shredding” when he’s holding up the copy of Guitar Player magazine (“Look at ‘im shreddin’ over here.”):

Welcome to my first blog  that I will be doing in series as a contributor for Shred the Classics. Here I will be discussing the subject of tuning from a perspective of an electric guitarist inside the world of classical music. In order to make this very easy to understand and to keep every entry as clean as possible, I will be dividing my blog by period in chronological order.

It’s very simple. It means that I will start with tuning in the Baroque period and advance forward. Right now I won’t go into the subject of tuning before the Baroque period for many reasons which I will explain later on, but I will go into that subject as we move forward. So let’s begin.

Modern Baroque historical performance, A=415 hz:

First of all, let’s start off by explaining the tuning frequency A=415hz, and since we are electric guitar players let’s start by focusing a little bit on that. Nowadays, one can go on YouTube and see hundreds of videos of electric guitar players performing music by Pachelbel, Albioni, Vivaldi, Telemann, and Bach amongst other Baroque composers. However, there is one big problem in all of them: tuning. During the Baroque period, one could find pitches ranging from A=380 hz to A=480 hz depending on the country and the city you were in; that is 100 hz of difference in the tuning system during the baroque period. That meant that organs and harpsichords in the same city were tuned to different pitches, which became a huge problem for a fixed-pitch instrument like the flute and the oboe, for example. Stringed instruments, on the other hand, had no problem adjusting to these pitches.

It’s important to notice that the tuning system standard today is set to A=440 hz, while the modern pitch for Baroque historical performance was set to A=415 hz.

The reason for this?

Well, it’s very simple. Like I stated before, during the Baroque period tuning changed between A=380 hz to A=480 hz, which means that a pitch of A=415 hz was used sometime during the 160 years of the Baroque movement. Since A=440 hz is standard nowadays, A=415 hz is a half step or a semitone below A=440 hz.

A 415 hz = A flat on a modern piano.
A 440 hz = A natural on a modern piano.

Now, here is one of the interesting points:
To perform on modern baroque historical performance pitch A=415 hz, our instrument must be tuned a half step down to E flat. Nonetheless, the music is still being played as if we were in standard tuning to A=440 hz. So basically we are reading from the score (just to say something) an open A on our 5th string, we play the open A but the sound we hear is that of an A flat, which is the whole point in all of this. This brings us to the interesting conclusion that an electric guitar tuned to E flat is ready for modern baroque historical performance most of the time. But be aware that there are a few exceptions, including the music that was written for the viola da gamba.

Viola da Gamba, the connection between the electric guitar and the Baroque period:

This subject is one of the main reasons why I wanted to start these series about the Baroque period. Basically, this is where we can take advantage of our instrument, the way it’s made, the way it’s tuned and the way it functions when it comes to Baroque music performance.

The viola da gamba is a fretted, bowed, stringed instrument that comes in many sizes. It was widely used during the baroque period and made famous by Viol masters Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe and Marin Marais. At this time, this instrument has been gaining more popularity due to the fact that is widely used in period consorts after being kept in obscurity and being neglected for centuries. On the left side you can see a portrait of Marin Marais by André Bouys in 1704.

The standard tuning for a six and seven string bass viola da gamba is in fourths with a major third on the third string:

Six String Bass Viola da Gamba: D-G-C-E-A-D
Six String Guitar in drop D tuning: D-G-C-F-A-D

Seven String Bass Viola da Gamba: A-D-G-C-E-A-D
Seven String Guitar in drop A tuning A-D-G-C-F-A-D

If you see the comparison between the tuning in a bass viola da gamba and an electric guitar with scordatura, you will realize that the only difference is that of a half step on the third string.

This is amazing, isn’t it?

Yes, it is amazing indeed. Even so, you must remember that the drop D scordatura that I am suggesting here is based on an A=415 hz, so technically speaking we are on a C sharp scordatura in a six string guitar and a G sharp scordatura on a seven string guitar based on the standard A=440 hz that’s used today.

With all of this I am not trying to create confusion in any way but quite the contrary. Everything I have said so far can resumed to the following:

During the Baroque period, an A was seen as an A regardless of what the tuning system was between A=380 hz and A=480 hz, therefore what we must do is stick to this rule and see an A tuned to 415 hz as an A, instead of looking at it as an A flat based out of the 440 system, because that’s what creates confusion in all of this.

The reasons behind this “connection” that I am talking about has to do, first of all, with the fact that we share the same tuning, the size of the instrument comes very close, the timbrical quality is almost the same and most important, we share the same range of octaves in both instruments.
Below you can see a scene from the french film “Tous le matins du monde”, titled in English as “All the mornings of the world”, which documents the relationship between Marin Marais and his Viol teacher Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe. In this particular scene, a young Marin Marais plays during an audition for Sainte-Colombe an improvisation over Les Folies de Spagne. The purpose of showing this short clip is so that you can see the similarities that it shares with our instrument.

Baroque music performance as an electric guitarist:

As you may be able to tell by now, there is a huge difference in the way a Baroque composition is played by electric guitar players today in a combination with a rock band, another electric guitar or electric bass tuned to A=440 hz, a piano track tuned in A=440 hz, an orchestral track tuned in A=440 hz or even a midi track, just like the hundreds of videos that we can find on YouTube. Then of course, there is a huge difference if we play for instance: a Baroque dúo sonata with electric guitar and the combination of a harpsichord tuned to A=415 hz, a concerto with an orchestral track tuned to A=415 hz and even a solo composition tuned to this frequency. It’s just not the fact that we must follow the pitch to which modern baroque historical performance is set today, but it has to do with a timbrical quality and a color that can be achieved by playing this music tuned to this frequency.

To wrap up this entry, I will add a couple of videos so that the idea of how Baroque historical performance is executed by some of the greatest masters of our time. My intention with this blog is that after reading this information and listening to these audio and video clips, you can actually hear the difference between one tuning and the other, the palette of colors that can be achieved by this, the timbrical quality, and most important, that you can see the difference in the way baroque music is performed by electric guitar players today and how it can be performed in the future.

Solo:
Here I will draw a comparison between modern historical performance and contemporary performance of Baroque solo music. First, we have Viola da Gamba soloist and pedagogue Paolo Pandolfo giving such an amazing rendition of the Bach Cello Suite No.3 in C major I Prelude BWV 1009. This performance can only make me think of how Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe or Marin Marais would have performed a Bach Cello Suite on the Bass Viol.

Here we have the great Russian cellist, conductor, pedagogue, pianist and composer Maestro Mstislav Rostropovich, giving a contemporary rendition of the Bach Cello Suite No.3 in C major I Prelude BWV 1009. Of course you can notice right away the difference in pitch (the version by Pandolfo is transposed to F major), but you can still hear the difference of the A tuned to 415 hz and the A tuned in the range of the 440 hz with Rostropovich. Also the interpretation, the dinamic range, and tempo are two completely different worlds. That’s exactly the difference between historical performance and contemporary performance.

Concerto:
Here we have Baroque violinist, pedagogue and conductor Andrew Manze giving a performance of the Bach Violin concerto in A minor III Allegro Assai BWV 1041 with the Academy of Ancient Music. Again, this is such a magnificent performance in many ways. First of all, the sound of the gut strings tuned to A=415 hz on a violin with baroque performance setup gives such a warm and amazing projection. This is one of the reasons why I love historical performances so much.

To draw the comparison with the performance of Andrew Manze and the Academy of Ancient Music, I want to add this contemporary performance by violinist Hilary Hahn and the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jeffrey Kahane. You can hear right away the difference in pitch, not to mention that the sound is brighter, lighter, and most important, the vibrato is very romantic in style.

Now, I want to make very clear that with all of this I am not trying to say in any way that contemporary performance of Baroque music is wrong at all. What I am trying to do is bring out the different sound, colors, and timbers that can be achieved by following the modern historical performance pitch in Baroque music interpretation, and in what ways we can make use of this as electric guitar players.

If you have any questions or comments regarding this particular entry, you can leave me a comment below, send me a message from the team page or via my website at http://www.oscar-lugo.com/

Shred the Classics is back.  Sorry about that delay, but other opportunities come up that need to be handled.  All’s well though and we’re back with an extra contributor (not to mention some others who are interested in contributing as well).  There have also been several updates and will be many more coming in the near future.  Every so often, we may need to take the site down for maintenance, sorry about that.

In a way, this feels like a brand new “Shred the Classics”.  We launched version 1.0 just as a test to experiment with, then got busy.  But, it’s something we’re committed to, something we’re passionate about, so of course, we’re committed.

Here’s what’s new with this latest release of “Shred the Classics”:

1. Many bugs fixed!
2. “Series” posts have been added.  This way we’ve grouped together a series of posts which, when followed in succession, introduces or teaches a much bigger topic.
3. We’ve added a forum for chatting between members.

If you are enjoying this site, but just wish there was more, then let us know!  That’s always good incentive to give folks more of what they want.

However, in the mean time, there are ways to take matters into your own hands.  There are also ways get and play along with recordings for free (and legal).

What is the big secret here?  Well, not much of a secret, but it’s strangely neglected.  The good news is that it’s perfect for this type of music:

Hit the library!

Libraries in the US typically have tons of classical CDs that you can check out and listen to.  Want to hear a crazy Paganini concerto or his 24 Caprices without having to pay a dime (or thieve from the Internet)?  Go hit the library and become a library nerd!  Many times, you can also find the scores (the sheet music).  That’s one of the reasons why we suggest becoming proficient at learning standard notation.  An abundance of music is available in the city libraries.  Personally, I’ve lived in Denver and Seattle and both have awesome libraries with huge collections of CDs and sheet music.

Then there are the universities.  Even better!  If you attend a university, or live near one, with a good music department, you’ve suddenly got access to tons of materials.

I studied music in college so this was natural for me.  But, even when I wasn’t actively pursuing a degree, I’d hit a library hunting new music to explore and try out for shredding. I still do this – even today.

Way back in the early years, when I was first getting started exploring classical violin music for the electric guitar, I hit the library all the time.  This was in the mid 90′s and the Internet was still small and getting your hands on music was still not so easy.  I can clearly remember going into the library after Calculus class and picking out the score of some major piece that I’d never heard, hunting down the CD and reading along as the music played.  I discovered so much “new” and amazing music this way.  This is probably the number one way that I looked beyond the typical “Bach Rock” or the music of the 80′s Neoclassical metal gods.

Of course, nowadays, the Internet has changed all that.  Before the Internet, guitarists rarely considered using the library as a source of material.  Now with the Internet, that feeling has likely only increased.

It’s true, there are lots of great sites on the Internet that will let you download classical scores for free.  And, for sure, you want to take advantage of this.  But, sometimes it’s nice to hold the score in your hand.  I’d still much prefer a hardcopy of a score to a digital one, especially when trying to learn the piece.  The screen still doesn’t cut it for that.  Also, even though you can find video performances of almost anything on youtube, libraries will still have CDs of the best performances of pieces.  MP3 quality sound through your computer speakers isn’t as good as listening to the CD through a nice system that either you have or a library has.  And of course, you can check these things out of the library.

Heck, you’re likely paying plenty of taxes for the libraries anyway…go take advantage of it!  Go on!  Give it a try!

My old library

Introduction

Available now, the world premier recording of the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major…on the guitar!  I suppose if there’s any big classical piece that I will forever identify with, it’s this one.  The time span for this recording is huge:  oh, about 15 years!  When I first started considering playing classical violin works on the guitar, I started with the Tchaikovsky Concerto.  My college roommate and I even performed sections of it together:  him on synth, me on guitar.

I recorded the first movement on four-track in the late 90′s, then re-recorded it digitally a couple of years later and finally completed the concerto a year or so after that.  I used a synth orchestra as the accompaniment, which I always thought a weakness.  A friend suggested I re-record it, but it’s not a piece that one casually considers recording a second time!  Plus, I preferred to focus on new transcriptions.  Just a few months ago, the same friend suggested that I at least rework the background tracks.  Hey, not a bad idea!  A serendipitous meeting with a Chinese musician made this a reality and after a couple of months of weekend effort, we had a high quality sample of the orchestral track ready to go.

And so now, the recording is ready for you!  Man, what an effort this has been.  I hope you enjoy it; as you listen, please keep in mind the effort it took!  Man, I’m just exhausted thinking about it!  It’s available on a number of sites:

• CD Baby
• Kunaki

If you’re a shredder and are interested in learning some (or all) of the piece, read further below!

Shred this Masterpiece!

If you’re a guitarist, particularly a shredder, would you have any interest in learning some, or all, of this piece?  I admit, committing to learning the whole thing is a monumental goal, however that’s certainly not a requirement.  Just learning a few licks casually in this piece is entertaining and rewarding.  I’ll guarantee that you haven’t played licks like this before.  Some of the wildest, craziest stuff I’ve ever seen has been adapted from masterpieces over a hundred years old.  This is no exception.  Try out a few of these on your friends and they’ll be asking, “Where on earth did you learn that?!?”

Here’s a video sample from the first movement of the piece.  The sample starts off, somewhere between four and five minutes into the piece, during a melodic slow section.  The section leads into some ripping scales which further leads into shredding that just doesn’t ever seem to stop!

This piece is a blast to experiment and dabble with, capable of providing years of learning and entertainment.  Oh yes, not only do I still have the transcription, but I worked really hard to make a professional transcription complete with detailed fingerings and suggestions.  I’d like others to be able to enjoy this music. My goal in creating the site that you are reading this on is to share these great masterpieces with the shredding community.  The Tchaikovsky concerto is a great place to start.

Some History: